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Rijpsburg was the name of an abandoned Dutch settlement on Spitsbergen on Cape Boheman, at the southern end of the Nordfjorden in the Isfjord, diagonally opposite Longyearbyen. It was built in 1920 by the RotterdamVan der Eb and Dresselhuys Scheepvaartmaatschappij (Ship building company) with prefabricated huts for the mining of coal. 12 Dutch staff and 52 German miners started mining coal here that year. Dutch Spitsbergen Company (NESPICO) was founded in 1920 and mined coal in Green Harbour fjord on Spitsbergen from 1921 to 1926. The company renamed the settlement Barentsburg after Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz. In 1932 the propriertors sold the mine, including its settlement Barentsburg, to the Russian Trust Arktikugol. The population has declined over the decades; in its heyday, over 1,000 Soviet citizens inhabited Barentsburg.

On October 17, 2006 Norwegian inspectors detected a smoldering underground fire in Barentsburg, prompting fears that an open fire might break out,[2] which would have forced the total evacuation of Barentsburg for an indefinite period of time, and also cause environmental problems of unknown magnitude for the entire archipelago. The fire was later contained.[3] Coal mining resumed at the end of 2010.[4]

Barentsburg started as a Dutch mining town in the 1920s.[6] In 1932 the Dutch sold their concession to the Soviet Union.[7] Since 1932 the Russian state-owned Arktikugol Trust (Russian for “Arctic Coal”) has been operating on Svalbard. The main economic activity is coal mining by the Arktikugol (Арктикуголь) company. The coal is usually exported to Northern European buyers. The town relies entirely on mainland Russia for food and coinage. There have been instances in which not enough food was sent, and aid packages were sent from Longyearbyen. Tourism is now being developed, but does not yet generate enough income to revive the town.

Barentsburg features a tundra climate under the Köppen climate classification, with short, chilly “summers” and long, brutally cold winters, though winters here are noticeably warmer than winters in a number of locations with subarctic climates. Due to the fact that the town is located at a latitude approaching 80 degrees, only in four months of the year are average temperatures above freezing, and in no month does the average monthly temperature exceed 10 °C (50 °F). Average low temperatures during the winter routinely drop below −15 °C (5 °F). Barentsburg averages roughly 550 millimetres (22 in) of precipitation, much of which falls as snow. In fact, the town typically experiences snowfall in every month of the year.

The Barentsburg Pomor Museum presents Pomor culture, Arctic flora and fauna, and archeological objects preserved in the permafrost. It is open when the daily, summer-only boat from Longyear arrives and by special arrangement. There is an athletic complex, including a swimming pool with heated seawater.

Every summer, several dozen geophysicists, geologists, archeologists, biologists, glaciologists, geographers, etc., from Russia and elsewhere work in the scientific research centre. There is also a year-round meteorological observatory and the northernmost cosmic rays station.

Barentsburg has its own school serving the Russian community; in 2014 it had three teachers, with one for most subjects, one for music, and one for the English language. By 2014 its welfare funds had declined.[9]